ILOILO CITY, Feb 8 (PIA 6) - - Drivers are front liners in the tourism industry, thus a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) was forged by the Department of Tourism (DOT), Region 6 along with three other government agencies in order to strengthen the transport sector in the development of tourism in Western Visayas.

DOT 6 OIC-Regional Director Helen J. Catalbas said that the DOT, Land Transportation Office (LTO), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB), and the Civil Aviation Authority must work together “for us to agree on common terms of reference on how to make Western Visayas more attractive to tourists as a safer and more secure place in this part of the country”.

LTO Director Gerard M. Camina said that “our taxi drivers and other tourist land transport operators are considered as tourism front liners, because our visitors had their first interactions with these sector, and a great part of their impressions of our region depends on how our front liners have interacted with them”.

Camina said that if our visitors are satisfied with their interactions with the drivers, “they carried home happy memories. The visitors’ good observations of their visits here will be told and retold by them to their families, friends and relatives when they return to their respective places of origin”.

The MOA calls for the said agencies to conduct trainings on Security and Safety, Grooming and Basic Tour Guiding to all duly licensed taxi and tourist land Transport operators/drivers operating in Western Visayas; to be co-signatories of the Certificate of Training/Identification Card to be issued to all tourist land transport/taxi drivers who shall have completed the training; to strictly impose sanctions to erring tourist lasnd transport/taxi operators/ drivers as provided for in the mandate of each of the parties concerned.

The MOA also recommends compulsory drug testing of all tourist land transport/taxi drivers operating in Western Visayas.

With Catalbas, the other signatories of the MOA are Area Manager Efren N. Nagrama of the CAAP; LTO Director Gerard M. Camina and LTFRB Director Romulo V. Bernardes. Also present during the MOA signing ceremony at the DOT Regional Office is Engr. Perfecto Yap, President of the Association of Taxi Operators-Iloilo City. Yap is alo the president of the New Iloilo Airport Transport Association.(JCM/VWV/PIA6-Iloilo)